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Victory star laments profligate finishing in FFA Cup loss

A despondent Leigh Broxham said if Victory had taken their chances early it could’ve been a different result rather than a 2-0 loss in their Westfield FFA Cup semi final against Melbourne City on Tuesday night at AAMI Park.

After going behind to an early goal Victory should’ve equalised on 30 minutes with Besart Berisha spurning a golden opportunity laid on by Marco Rojas.

There were other chances too with Berisha shutting down City keeper Dean Bouzanis with the ball squirting just wide after the striker blocked the keeper’s clearance.

And Broxham himself had a low shot deflected just wide in the second half as Victory pressed for an equaliser.

Whilst Broxham refused to say Melbourne is seeing a shift in football domination from Victory to City, he conceded City always lift when they play in any derby.

“We’ve played derby games against them and they’re always difficult and they always lift when they play against us,” he told Fox Sports.

But tonight I thought we did take the game to them.

“And we had some chances early. If we’d taken them it could’ve been a different day.

“We did take the game to them and so there are some positives... but they took their chances and we didn’t. And in a Cup game that’s the difference,” he said of a game that had eight yellow cards and threatened to boil over on a number of occasions.

Broxham added City’s first goal was a goal in his view, despite it being ruled out initially by the assistant referee before being given.

“It looked like a goal to me. Whether he impeded him or not, I couldn’t see," said Broxham.